Stewart Lee and Matt Berry Comedies On The Way As BBC Ramps Up Online-Only Content

With BBC3 migrating online, a slew of new content has been commissioned .

In a bid to boost their online presence a la Netflix, the BBC has announced a set of new comedies set to launch solely on the recently revamped iPlayer service. There will be 7 one-off shows, and amongst these new comedies is original work from Matt Berry and Stewart Lee.

BBC3's impending move to online-only ties in with the initiative

Other comedians involved in crafting new original content are Micky Flanagan, Morgana Robinson, Bob Mortimer and Meera Syal, not to mention Frankie Boyle.

There will also be three short films from new young writers and emerging talent called Flea, Tag an My Jihad. The news comes as the BBC threatens to shut down BBC3 – a hub for original British comedies. The recent investment of money and time into online content suggests that tax-payers funds will be channelled into making the iPlayer more like Netflix than simply a catch up service, with content exclusively available.

The BBC plans to make BBC 3 available through iPlayer only in an effort to "find an extra £100m of savings" after funding cuts, according to director general Tony Hall. But the move hasn’t come without opposition. "BBC3 makes lots of great, clever, distinct programmes," BBC 5Live presenter Richard Bacon tweeted. "If the rumours of it being cut are true, we might need to retool that 6Music campaign."

Matt Berry is a popular figure, especially for his role as Dixon Bainbridge on The Mighty Boosh

"The aim of this move is to ensure that the BBC's own offering stands out from the crowd and to provide a more simple user experience to discover and access its content," Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at CCS Insight said.

"It also reflects the growing traffic driven to iPlayer from mobile devices. We believe that it won't be long before requests from mobile devices will exceed those from other devices such as computers and other connected devices."